Seeds, Stories & Solidarity (Fall 2025) - Magazine - Page 22
Nyéléni comes to Sri Lanka
In September 2025, the Third Nyéléni Global Forum in
Kandy, Sri Lanka, convened more than 700 peasant farmers
and working people from around the world. The Nyéléni
process—named after a Malian peasant woman known
for fighting for the right to land, dignity, and justice—held
its inaugural forum in Selingué, Mali in 2007. The forum
brought together one of the most diverse representations
of the world’s food producing people. Expanding beyond
small-scale food producers, the Third Forum is about
building joint proposals and actions to confront the
interconnected crises facing humanity today.
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Sri Lanka—shaped by the violence of colonialism and debt
and a rich history of popular resistance—is not a random
choice for the forum. Sri Lanka offers hope that the wave
of authoritarianism, repression, and economic violence
sweeping the globe can be overcome through popular
struggle.
Rooted in food sovereignty, the defense of the commons,
the right to health, climate justice, feminism, social and
solidarity economies, agroecology, and Indigenous
knowledge, the Third Nyéléni Global Forum aims to spark
a global paradigm shift in response to today’s economic,
political, social, and environmental crises.
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